Australians Are Lending Their Weight to Get Shrooms and MDMA Rescheduled

The first official push to get MDMA and magic mushrooms rescheduled in Australia is underway, and your support could help.

It all began in August 26, when an organisation called Mind Medicine Australia submitted Australia’s first-ever application to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)—which is the country’s version of the American Food and Drug Administration—requesting psilocybin and MDMA be rescheduled from Schedule 9 of the Uniform Scheduling of Medicines and Poisons to Schedule 8. This would degrade the drugs’ classification from “prohibited substances” to “controlled medicines”.

The practical use for this downgrade is that it would enable addiction specialists and psychiatrists to prescribe therapeutic doses of the drugs to patients living with depression and PTSD, or as a remedy to the anxiety and fear of terminal illness.

Mind Medicine Australia has also been quick to assure the public that such changes will not affect controls already placed on illicit suppliers.

“Treatment innovation in Australia’s mental health sector is desperately needed to reduce the burden of mental illness in this country,” reads the application’s press release. “In November last year the Productivity Commission reported that one in five Australians currently had a chronic mental illness.”

Now, the Australian public has until September 28 to support the application by lodging their own supporting submissions with the TGA. From there, Mind Medicine’s submission will be reviewed by an expert committee.

The TGA’s final decision on rescheduling will be announced on Thursday 22 April 2021.

Mind Medicine Australia’s information page includes an guide in how to lodge a supporting submission.

“The rescheduling of these medicines would be a historic moment for all of us!” concludes their media release.